Discrimination vs Depth

[Jackalope]

When using large amounts of Disc. on the E-trac, is there a significant loss of depth? Reading the Operators manual and Andy's book didn't answer this question for me but maybe I missed it. I'm talking about a pattern that's mostly black. Maybe FBS is different.

Ron

 

[bigjohn070]

I'm no expert but the coins you find running
lots of disc easily makes up for a little depth
loss of running wide open. JMHO

HH
BIG JOHN

 

[BOIdaho]

From my limited experience and also reading Andy's book, turning up the discrimination should not affect the depth, only the types of targets you will be digging. To have any affect on the depth you would have to turn the sensitivity down. Depending on where I am detecting, I will use the quick mask and run the ferrous up to 15 and leave the conductivity at zero. I use this setup most of the time. I am finding that the pin pointing is not always spot on but very close and the depth indicator is rarely accurate, unless the target is on or just under the surface. When I do find a target the reading for the ferrous and conductivity in is pretty accurate, sometimes pennies fool me and I think I have a dime, quarters blast my ears, no doubts there. Still digging those pull tabs in hopes of finding something really good. I would like to hear from others and what works for them and their opinion on settings.

 

[Jackalope]

Big John:

Yeh, that's kinda my thinking. The Discrim. on the E-trac impresses me as more of a different animal than the Disc. on some of the other brands I've used. While I'm thinking the (all metal, all the time) hunters probably do very well, this pattern thing is above and beyond the normal Disc. I'm working on coming up with an analogy between the Disc. on the E-trac and the Disc. I've previously used. Until I can come up with something better, I'm thinking my previous Disc. set ups were like road maps and the E-trac Disc. is like GPS. I know what I'm trying to say but it might take a while to put it in words.

Ron

 

[Jackalope]

BOIdaho:

Thanks for that input. What I'd really like to know is how the E-trac is handling ground conditions up there. I'm in Wyoming and our soil is probably close to yours. How high can you get in Auto-Sensitivity? Spent some time around Salmon prospecting when I was a little younger.

Ron

 

[Southwind]

I've noticed a slight loss in depth when in discrimination mode vs all-metal. Its pretty easy to see when you get a very deep faint signal with discrimination on and then go to all-metal. You see an improvement in the signal.

 

[BOIdaho]

I have only been swinging my E-Trac for about a month now, so I am no expert. I bought this detector based on the reviews and the outstanding customer support I have received from Minelab. Prior to this, I was using the X-Terra 70 and found that I was constantly adjusting the ground balance. I hunt everything from parks, lakes, streams and look for gold in the mountains. I always felt like I was missing the good stuff due to constantly adjusting the GB and trying to fine tune the sensitivity on the X-70. (I did hunt in the all metal mode with the X-Terra) With the Etrac I have been leaving the sensitivity in auto (A), do a ground balance when I start hunting. I have the meter on the left side of the display turn on to check to see if it matches. (I do have a hard time seeing the screen especially with the rain cover on with the ETrac) The ETrac in my opinion does an outstanding job of stabilizing itself in the GB department; to me it's so nice to go out and treasure hunt without all the falsing and chatter I got from the X-Terra. The discrimination also works really well (in my opinion) on the ETrac. Even though I haven't found any gold nuggets yet, I have found some interesting relics. I love this hobby, you never know what you're going to find with the next swing.